Having mustered all the crew who were on duty for the open day with camera poised for a group photo the call came in for a ‘shout’; so the fire-fighters assembled, changed into the appropriate kit and, with blue lights blazing and sirens sounding, they disappeared to a location in Winchelsea Beach. The best laid plans of mice and men. Visitors received an insight into how quickly the fire engine responds to a call and all was not lost because the crew did return so that the morning’s planned activities could be carried out.
The joy on children’s faces when they realised that they could operate a real firefighter’s hose with water was a delight. Of course the water didn’t always go quite where it should and that caused a great deal of hilarity.
The first activity for the assembled crowd to watch was the handling of the heavy ladders on the top of the appliance to ‘rescue’ a stranded colleague. This was a crowd-pleaser and the children loved it when the man stuck in the building was brought safely back down to the ground.
Pete Stonham, crew manager at the station, summed up the event: “It was great to see such a brilliant turn-out of families enjoying all the fun activities we laid on for everyone. It was also a great opportunity to make sure people had working smoke alarms and knew what to do if a chip pan caught alight. Many of the children were able to give the right answers when questioned which shows the importance of education and getting our messages into schools. It was a chance for the people to meet the fire service personnel from Rye. It was great to be supported by so many charities which had set up stalls and chatted about the work that they do in the community.”
Rother First Responders, who had a stall, are recruiting for personnel to join their teams in Northiam, Beckley, Peasmarsh and Winchelsea. If you are interested please email them at info@rotherresponders.org.uk.
The RNLI had a stall too, and they looking for fund-raisers in the area. If interested, please contact Ursula_nield@rnli.org.uk.
Another participating charity was DocBike Sussex, which is a national organisation with a regional office in Sussex. Its aims and goals are to work with all emergency services to reduce the number of fatalities and accidents on the roads. It is currently raising funds to place a fully-funded paramedic response bike with the air ambulance crew.
Hastings Voluntary Lifeguard Club also had a stall and if you want to know more about their amazing work go to www.hastingslifeguards.org.uk.
The Firefighters Charity and the Volunteers for Rye Station were also there and explained what they did to all who came.
Image Credits: Kt bruce , Iain Cebunka .